A father/brother figure to Paul, the high-school teacher reflects on his Mexican heritage, violent upbringing, tour in Vietnam, stints as a bouncer at a Hell’s Angels bar, and a Club Med guide, his getting “struck sober” and how he has evolved into the man his father never was.
The siblings discuss growing up in an affluent but emotionally witholding household, and how their struggles with depression and her eating disorder ultimately brought the two of them closer together. They talk about the difficulty of connecting with an emotionally shutdown mother consumed with presenting a facade of normalcy to the outside world. They discuss John’s childhood self-harming, Megan’s non-purging bulimia and compulsive exercising and starving, and the importance of finally asking for help from people who could emotionally provide it. They also talk about the danger to one’s military career (John was in the Air Force) with disclosing a history of mental illness. And the importance of naps without guilt!!